Beni Bischof's zine created on occasion of the Bally fall / winter 2024 collection.
Beni Bischof works in an unruly and intuitive manner. In addition to his drawings, collages, paintings, sculptures, and installations, his self-published, laser copied art magazine has since 2005 borne witness to his eruptive creative urges. He translates spontaneous ideas concerning social and political issues into quirky, humorous word and image-based messages of a disarming directness. The banality of everyday life is not spared any more than current political dramas. Beni Bischof de-glamorizes the noble appearance of purported exclusivity and draws a picture of society characterized by his unfathomable sense of humor. He draws his image and text materials from trivial literature, fashion magazines, advertising, and even the virtual world.
Born 1976, Beni Bischof lives and works in St. Gallen. It all started when he began publishing laser-copied artist's magazines in 2005 as an independent means of distributing his drawings, collages, and texts. The speed of production suited his impetuous, prolific output. It was not long before he found an additional, three-dimensional outlet for his obsessions by adding sculpture, painting, and installations to his repertoire. Often using everyday objects, Bischof creates bizarre objects whose coherence he reinforces with plaster and paint. He applies similar techniques of combining, reassembling, and reworking to images appropriated from fashion magazines, trivial literature, LP covers, and the like, overpainting them and modifying them digitally or even mechanically.
Beni Bischof was awarded the St. Gallen Manor Art Prize for the year 2015.